This winter has been crazy! It is cold, windy and snowing where I am and a few days ago it was sunny and the temperature was around 50 degrees. The birds are as confused as I am. There were four fat robins in the tree one morning a couple of days ago, huddling against the cold and blowing snow. Is it actually spring? Because it sure doesn't look or feel like spring.
As I meditate on the idea of spring I remember the maxim "Hope springs eternal." The word "hope" has been bandied about for the past two years. But isn't hope based on a real possibility? Nowadays we are hearing more about the time it might take to repair the damage of greed and an economy made of air and deception.
Still, spring does always come. We will do what we need to do to survive and even thrive in the midst of chaos and change - remembering the Chinese word for "crisis" includes parts of the words for "danger" and "opportunity". Many times in known history we have been on the brink of disaster. According to Malthus, for example, there are too many of us to actually feed. Yet somehow we are still here - all 7 billion of us!
We will find ways to live more in harmony with our beautiful Earth. Who knows, we may seed other planets in the future.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Odd Duck
After my last post I received information from a number of readers. What resonates is the word from a professional ornithologist that the "odd duck" was most likely a juvenile cormorant. It doesn't seem likely . . . but my neighbor did see a cormorant on her daily walk about the same time. Whatever it was, it was out of its normal environment.
Whenever I see something that strikingly out of place, and so blatantly communicating with me (the bird stared at me the whole time it was sitting in the tree outside my window - a couple of minutes ), I know there is a message for me. In this case, I remember one of the first rattles I made out of rawhide. I didn't know what I had done until a friend saw it and said "You've made a cormorant!" The bird-rattle head was lifted higher than the wings. Likewise, the cormorant flies with its head elevated, the only bird I know that does this. When I made the rattle, I had no knowledge that there was such a bird, let alone how it flies!
Since it has appeared in my life, I did look up cormorant, and found some interesting facts. They catch and eat fish underwater. They do the impossible, diving as deep as 100 feet because their bones are heavier than most birds, they swallow pebbles, and they squeeze the air out of their feathers. Long ago the Chinese and until recently the Japanese kept domesticated cormorants to catch fish. They tied a string or a ring around the necks to keep the birds from swallowing their catch of fish.
Ted Andrews in his book Animal-Wise says that when cormorant appears there will be a teaching or new opportunity that enable us to accomplish what doesn't seem possible. It is a reminder to me to do what I have been hesitating about. I am grateful for the reminder!
Whenever I see something that strikingly out of place, and so blatantly communicating with me (the bird stared at me the whole time it was sitting in the tree outside my window - a couple of minutes ), I know there is a message for me. In this case, I remember one of the first rattles I made out of rawhide. I didn't know what I had done until a friend saw it and said "You've made a cormorant!" The bird-rattle head was lifted higher than the wings. Likewise, the cormorant flies with its head elevated, the only bird I know that does this. When I made the rattle, I had no knowledge that there was such a bird, let alone how it flies!
Since it has appeared in my life, I did look up cormorant, and found some interesting facts. They catch and eat fish underwater. They do the impossible, diving as deep as 100 feet because their bones are heavier than most birds, they swallow pebbles, and they squeeze the air out of their feathers. Long ago the Chinese and until recently the Japanese kept domesticated cormorants to catch fish. They tied a string or a ring around the necks to keep the birds from swallowing their catch of fish.
Ted Andrews in his book Animal-Wise says that when cormorant appears there will be a teaching or new opportunity that enable us to accomplish what doesn't seem possible. It is a reminder to me to do what I have been hesitating about. I am grateful for the reminder!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Feed the Birds
Where I live we have had a hard winter. Yes, I know much of the United States had a hard winter. Where I grew up in the Midwest, we expected hard winters. Now I live in the Pacific Northwest, where we seldom have snow, and almost never have snow feet deep and lasting for more than a day or two. In the small town where I live the main street is the only one plowed. I haven't asked, but I suspect it is actually the state that plows that street - it is the end of a state highway and also leads right to a border crossing between the States and Canada.
After the snow, there were floods. My apartment was an island in the midst of water varying from 2 inches to 2 - 3 feet. Thankfully, nothing in our building was harmed.
However, I was thinking about the birds. I had put out a bird feeder before all the weather came on. But I decided I would add some suet. At the beginning, the birds were Juncos and Swallows eating seed. Then I saw Finches. Next there were two Flickers, pecking away at the suet. Soon after that, the Starlings found the feeders and descended in droves. And then today, I saw a Steller's Jay.
I love watching them, and so does my cat friend Bowser. He sits in the window a lot, sometimes making Akkk-aakkkk noises - you know, those sounds cat make when stalking prey. At first the birds would leave when he was visible, but by now they just ignore him.
There is one bird I have not been able to identify, despite looking not only through my two books (Sibley's and Audubon), but several others that friends had and a search on the internet. This was fairly early on. When I saw the bird, I thought "That is an odd duck!" Well, it didn't look like a duck, or any other bird I have ever seen. I had the uncomfortable feeling it was out of time and space.
This bird was slender, about two feet tip to tail, with a long dark decurved (downward arching) bill and a longish tail. I first saw it sideways to me and it was looking right at me - directly into my eyes. I saw its head and back, which were dark with greenish iridescence. Then it turned and showed me its whitish speckled breast. And flew away.
The only birds I saw in my research that looked at all like this bird were birds that do not live in the part of the world where I live: like the Little Black Cormorant, which wouldn't be perching in a tree anyway! None really looked quite like this bird. I am stumped. If you have an idea, let me know. I still think it was an odd duck - perhaps sending me a message that I have not yet decoded.
Please remember your feathered and furred friends. If we have had a hard winter, remember they had less shelter and more challenge in finding food.
After the snow, there were floods. My apartment was an island in the midst of water varying from 2 inches to 2 - 3 feet. Thankfully, nothing in our building was harmed.
However, I was thinking about the birds. I had put out a bird feeder before all the weather came on. But I decided I would add some suet. At the beginning, the birds were Juncos and Swallows eating seed. Then I saw Finches. Next there were two Flickers, pecking away at the suet. Soon after that, the Starlings found the feeders and descended in droves. And then today, I saw a Steller's Jay.
I love watching them, and so does my cat friend Bowser. He sits in the window a lot, sometimes making Akkk-aakkkk noises - you know, those sounds cat make when stalking prey. At first the birds would leave when he was visible, but by now they just ignore him.
There is one bird I have not been able to identify, despite looking not only through my two books (Sibley's and Audubon), but several others that friends had and a search on the internet. This was fairly early on. When I saw the bird, I thought "That is an odd duck!" Well, it didn't look like a duck, or any other bird I have ever seen. I had the uncomfortable feeling it was out of time and space.
This bird was slender, about two feet tip to tail, with a long dark decurved (downward arching) bill and a longish tail. I first saw it sideways to me and it was looking right at me - directly into my eyes. I saw its head and back, which were dark with greenish iridescence. Then it turned and showed me its whitish speckled breast. And flew away.
The only birds I saw in my research that looked at all like this bird were birds that do not live in the part of the world where I live: like the Little Black Cormorant, which wouldn't be perching in a tree anyway! None really looked quite like this bird. I am stumped. If you have an idea, let me know. I still think it was an odd duck - perhaps sending me a message that I have not yet decoded.
Please remember your feathered and furred friends. If we have had a hard winter, remember they had less shelter and more challenge in finding food.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Talk about your golf handicap!
This you tube video is inspiring and thought provoking. We really do create our reality, despite the outer circumstances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslbhDZoniY
So . . . do you feel lucky after viewing this? I know I will focus more on what I have and can do than what I don't have and can't do. We all have gifts to give, don't we.
See you later!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslbhDZoniY
So . . . do you feel lucky after viewing this? I know I will focus more on what I have and can do than what I don't have and can't do. We all have gifts to give, don't we.
See you later!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thanksgiving
So . . . Thanksgiving is over for this year . . . or is it? Can we live in Thanksgiving mode? It would make a better world I am sure.
Around our small table of three, plus the cat, we had plenty to eat, two good wines, and fun with Trivial Pursuit. Even the cat had special treats and a tiny taste of turkey.
One of my companions recalled a small dog who snatched a chicken left marinating to go on the grill, and then ran with it. They recovered the chicken and put it on the grill!
I recalled the Thanksgiving when my dog friend Shama did something more drastic. Shama was a Fila Brasilero, which means 100 pounds BIG. Just standing still she was 3 feet tall, and if she stood on hind legs she was much taller than I. My housemate had bought and roasted the turkey. After the meal I went to my room at the back of the house, while she cut the meat off the turkey and started soup with the carcass. When I came back to the kitchen a while later, I saw the platter of meat on the counter. Shama was eyeing it. So I warned my housemate, who said she would take care of it in a minute. I shrugged and went back to my room.
A while later, I returned to the kitchen. I saw Shama flopped out and an empty platter on the floor beside her! My housemate did not say a word about it.
My goal for the next year is to remain as thankful as I have been this week. I count my blessings.
Around our small table of three, plus the cat, we had plenty to eat, two good wines, and fun with Trivial Pursuit. Even the cat had special treats and a tiny taste of turkey.
One of my companions recalled a small dog who snatched a chicken left marinating to go on the grill, and then ran with it. They recovered the chicken and put it on the grill!
I recalled the Thanksgiving when my dog friend Shama did something more drastic. Shama was a Fila Brasilero, which means 100 pounds BIG. Just standing still she was 3 feet tall, and if she stood on hind legs she was much taller than I. My housemate had bought and roasted the turkey. After the meal I went to my room at the back of the house, while she cut the meat off the turkey and started soup with the carcass. When I came back to the kitchen a while later, I saw the platter of meat on the counter. Shama was eyeing it. So I warned my housemate, who said she would take care of it in a minute. I shrugged and went back to my room.
A while later, I returned to the kitchen. I saw Shama flopped out and an empty platter on the floor beside her! My housemate did not say a word about it.
My goal for the next year is to remain as thankful as I have been this week. I count my blessings.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Flower Essences
More than twenty years ago, my dear friend and astrologer, Barbara Shere (who die about four years ago), told me that she saw me making things to empower people. "Flower essences, I think."
At the time, I thought "I don't want to learn anything new. I have plenty to do."
Then, about seven or eight years later, I found myself in a garden I had designed and created - backbreaking work and all. I was making a flower essence. As I remembered Barbara's prediction, I smiled. When I was finished with the essence, I went inside and called Barbara.
"Do you remember telling me I would make flower essences?"
"Yes."
"Well I was just in the garden making a flower essence from my own garden!"
We laughed and talked for a bit, and then I went back to my work.
Eventually I had made more than fifty flower essences, and a number of crystal essences as well. I began muscle testing and making essence combinations for anyone who would sit still long enough to let me work. I learned a lot. I also used my own self as a test subject, learning how the essences worked, subtly and powerfully.
These days I test myself daily, and seldom get a "Yes" on the question "Do I need an essence or combination?" Recently however, I got the inner nudge to test myself for essences. I kept testing and taking the essence that tested positive for me, until I finally got to a combination of three single essences plus a combination a friend had made. I laughed out loud when I read the definition of the first essence, Calathea. It helps one to follow a single thought when there are many thoughts and ideas crowding the mind. This is something I work on all the time. In our busy world many of us attempt to multi-task. It never works. The other essences were equally powerful, lifting anger and opening the heart. I am taking it for many months - in fact as long as I am also using a process from Perelandra Ltd. called a "calibration."
The calibration, as I understand it, "unsticks" energy and patterns that are jammed or not moving for some reason. In working on burning the excess fat off my body, I realized I needed help. What came up for me was to do a calibration every day for a long period of time. My muscle testing for the essence combination gave me a twice a day dose for the same time remaining for doing the daily calibration. I don't understand all the reasons and what exactly is happening. I do know it is working for my highest and best.
This is one small example of how essences can work.
At the time, I thought "I don't want to learn anything new. I have plenty to do."
Then, about seven or eight years later, I found myself in a garden I had designed and created - backbreaking work and all. I was making a flower essence. As I remembered Barbara's prediction, I smiled. When I was finished with the essence, I went inside and called Barbara.
"Do you remember telling me I would make flower essences?"
"Yes."
"Well I was just in the garden making a flower essence from my own garden!"
We laughed and talked for a bit, and then I went back to my work.
Eventually I had made more than fifty flower essences, and a number of crystal essences as well. I began muscle testing and making essence combinations for anyone who would sit still long enough to let me work. I learned a lot. I also used my own self as a test subject, learning how the essences worked, subtly and powerfully.
These days I test myself daily, and seldom get a "Yes" on the question "Do I need an essence or combination?" Recently however, I got the inner nudge to test myself for essences. I kept testing and taking the essence that tested positive for me, until I finally got to a combination of three single essences plus a combination a friend had made. I laughed out loud when I read the definition of the first essence, Calathea. It helps one to follow a single thought when there are many thoughts and ideas crowding the mind. This is something I work on all the time. In our busy world many of us attempt to multi-task. It never works. The other essences were equally powerful, lifting anger and opening the heart. I am taking it for many months - in fact as long as I am also using a process from Perelandra Ltd. called a "calibration."
The calibration, as I understand it, "unsticks" energy and patterns that are jammed or not moving for some reason. In working on burning the excess fat off my body, I realized I needed help. What came up for me was to do a calibration every day for a long period of time. My muscle testing for the essence combination gave me a twice a day dose for the same time remaining for doing the daily calibration. I don't understand all the reasons and what exactly is happening. I do know it is working for my highest and best.
This is one small example of how essences can work.
Gratitude
Yesterday I did my grocery shopping. More than ever, I noticed how kind people were with me and with others. Almost everyone I encountered smiled, and everyone I talked with wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I wonder whether, in the midst of economic challenges, knowing how many people are losing jobs, money they've invested, and sometimes their homes, we are all the more aware of what we have to be grateful for.
Tomorrow I will roast a turkey, and gather with neighbors and friends to share a holiday meal. Interestingly, we all eat somewhat differently. One friend is a vegetarian, another eats "All American", and I eat no grains and not much in the way of starches. The turkey will have no stuffing, and there will be no pie. Tee will make and eat her favorite vegetarian Mexican soup, Tee and Bill will eat garlic mashed potatoes and home made rolls, Bill and I will eat turkey, and we all will eat salad, asparagus and acai sorbet that is to die for. What we will have in common is a our friendship and our gratitude.
Somehow I am reminded of the first turkey I roasted. I was in my second year of law school, married less than a year, and my parents came to visit in St. Louis for Thanksgiving. I had not used the oven yet, and did not realize that the thermostat didn't work. Our turkey was done in half the time! Remarkably, it was one of the best turkeys I have eaten. When we took it out of the oven, we scrambled to finish fixing the rest of the meal, and had a good time together.
I was grateful that the turkey turned out despite the faulty thermostat, grateful for family, and grateful for the wonderful man I had married (later we divorced, not having had the skills to get through the rough times . . . and now we are just friends).
Gratitude is what this holiday is all about. I am grateful for a safe and comfortable place to live, for family and friends, for physical healing (I have some of the best doctors I know of), and for all that I have learned in my life. I am especially grateful to be doing the work that I was born to do: healing and writing.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tomorrow I will roast a turkey, and gather with neighbors and friends to share a holiday meal. Interestingly, we all eat somewhat differently. One friend is a vegetarian, another eats "All American", and I eat no grains and not much in the way of starches. The turkey will have no stuffing, and there will be no pie. Tee will make and eat her favorite vegetarian Mexican soup, Tee and Bill will eat garlic mashed potatoes and home made rolls, Bill and I will eat turkey, and we all will eat salad, asparagus and acai sorbet that is to die for. What we will have in common is a our friendship and our gratitude.
Somehow I am reminded of the first turkey I roasted. I was in my second year of law school, married less than a year, and my parents came to visit in St. Louis for Thanksgiving. I had not used the oven yet, and did not realize that the thermostat didn't work. Our turkey was done in half the time! Remarkably, it was one of the best turkeys I have eaten. When we took it out of the oven, we scrambled to finish fixing the rest of the meal, and had a good time together.
I was grateful that the turkey turned out despite the faulty thermostat, grateful for family, and grateful for the wonderful man I had married (later we divorced, not having had the skills to get through the rough times . . . and now we are just friends).
Gratitude is what this holiday is all about. I am grateful for a safe and comfortable place to live, for family and friends, for physical healing (I have some of the best doctors I know of), and for all that I have learned in my life. I am especially grateful to be doing the work that I was born to do: healing and writing.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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